 Good evening aspirants. I welcome you all to the Hindu Daily News Analysis brought to you by Shankara Ace Academy for the newspaper dated 20th of February 2023. Displayed here are the list of articles that we will take up for discussion today. There are seven articles, you can go through it. Now we will start with the first article discussion. First let's take this text and context article for our discussion. The article talks about the recent Supreme Court observation on the seal cover jurisprudence. We are all aware of the Adani group versus Hindenburg issue, right? This led to the fall in stock prices and the Indian investors who have invested in the Adani group of companies are losing huge sums of money. So in this light the Supreme Court of India has asked the Union government's opinion in forming a special committee. This is to suggest measures to safeguard the interest of the investors in the wake of incidents like these. So the Union government tried to use the seal cover jurisprudence to give out its opinion on formation of the committee. However, the Chief Justice of India Mr. Chandrachut has said that Supreme Court would not accept the seal cover suggestions from the government. He also said if the Supreme Court accepts the suggestions then the other side, that is the petitioners would not know what the government has said. The Supreme Court through this observation has tried to bring in transparency in its functioning. So this is the overall background of the issue. Now we will see the points discussed in the article regarding the seal cover jurisprudence. Firstly, the syllabus relevant to this discussion is highlighted here. You can go through it. So now we will see what is meant by the term called seal cover jurisprudence. See, seal cover jurisprudence is a special option that is available to the government to present its argument in an opaque manner to the courts present in our country. So this is a special power that is granted to the government to safeguard the interest of public. To put it simply, when the government uses the seal cover jurisprudence, the contents presented by it cannot be retrieved by the party which is opposite to the government. So this is a serious issue. When the party opposite to the government doesn't know about the arguments of the government, then it becomes difficult for them to defend themselves against the government. This is all about the term seal cover jurisprudence. Now let us try to learn about the origin of this practice. As per the article, the origin of seal cover jurisprudence can be traced to service and administrative cases. So initially, official service records and promotion assessments of individual persons were received in the seal cover. This is to avoid any harm to the reputation of the offices. However, this practice then got widened and the government is now using it in other cases too. Here, note that the Supreme Court receives confidential documents in cases relating to sexual assault. This is to protect the identity of the victim. Now here I have provided some of the recent cases in which seal cover jurisprudence is used. Just go through it and you can see that these are very politically sensitive cases. So using seal cover in such cases affects transparency. You should also know that there are no explicit provisions regarding seal cover jurisprudence in any major laws present in our country. But the rule 7 of order 13 of the Supreme Court rules 2013 allows for any document submitted before the court to be kept confidential in a sealed cover. This rule is placed under the prerogative of the Chief Justice of the Court. Here note that only after obtaining special permission from the Chief Justice of the concerned court, government can make use of this special rule. So normally the rule is allowed to be used if the publication of the concerned record is considered to be not in the interest of the public. Other than this particular rule, section 123 of the Evidence Act of 1872 provides that government should give prior permission to a person who wants to present evidence before a court which is derived from any unpublished official records. So any unpublished official record of the state cannot be used as evidence in the court of law by any individual without first obtaining the permission from the government. These are the two rules mentioned in the article regarding seal cover jurisprudence. Now coming to the recent observation of Supreme Court relating to seal cover jurisprudence. Recently the Supreme Court in the media one case held that the proof of burden would lie with the government to prove the situations which necessitate the use of seal cover jurisprudence. Here the government should prove that how sharing a particular record in an open forum would prove detrimental to the national security and public order. In recent times, Supreme Court of India is trying to bring in the necessary transparency in its function by ensuring that seal cover jurisprudence is not misused frequently in the guard of national security. The observation made by Chief Justice in this particular case is one such example of the court trying to bring in more transparency in its working. With this we have come to the end of this discussion. So through this discussion we came to know about seal cover jurisprudence, the negatives associated with it and the recent Supreme Court observation regarding the use of seal cover. Now we will move on to the next article discussion. Now look at this text and context article. As you can see it is talking about sickle cell anemia. As we all know during the budget speech this year, our finance minister said that India is aiming to eradicate sickle cell anemia by 2047. India is the second worst affected country in terms of sickle cell anemia predicted births. That is the chances of being born with this condition of sickle cell anemia is high in India. This is the crux of the news article given here. So in this discussion we are going to see about sickle cell anemia. So what is this sickle cell anemia? Basically it is an inherited disorder that affects the shape of red blood cells. These are the cells that carry oxygen to all parts of the body. See normal red blood cells contain hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is a protein and it is the main part of the red blood cells. In our body it is the hemoglobin that carries oxygen to all parts of the body. And it has four protein subunits, two alpha and two beta. In some cases mutation occurs in the gene that creates the beta subunits. This affects the shape of the blood cells. The shape will be distorted to look like a sickle. You can see this image to understand the difference between the normal cell and a sickle shaped red blood cell. Now what is the problem here? See a round red blood cell can move easily through the blood vessels. This flexibility is because of its shape. But the sickle shaped red blood cells are not flexible and they stick to the walls of the blood vessels. This causes blockage that stops or slows down the flow of blood. This is the first problem. Secondly sickle cells die early. Normal red blood cells live for about 90 to 120 days. But the sickle cells last only 10 to 20 days. Usually body will make new red blood cells to replace the old cells. But in the sickle cell disease the cells are being destroyed fastly. The body will have trouble keeping up with this space. Because of this the number of red blood cells will become lower when compared to people without sickle cell disease. This condition only is called anemia. This shortage of red blood cells results in deprivation of oxygen for the body. Know that these obstructions and shortages causes chronic anemia, pain, fatigue, acute chest syndrome, stroke and other serious health complications. And without treatment quality of life can be compromised. And severe cases can become fatal in the initial years of the life itself. Healthcare providers can diagnose sickle cell anemia even before the baby is born. Also know that the condition can only be treated. Meaning the treatment will help in addressing the symptoms only. As of now a stem cell transplant is the only known cure for sickle cell anemia. So in this discussion we saw about sickle cell anemia, how it is caused and finally about the treatment available for sickle cell anemia. Now we will move on to the next article discussion. Now look at this article. It says that the Indian Navy is finalizing plans to repeat the order for INS Vikrant size indigenous aircraft carrier with some modifications. This order came at the time when INS Vikramaditya leaves the service. So this is like a replacement. According to the Indian Navy the plan is to get the indigenous aircraft carrier 2 larger than the indigenous aircraft carrier 1. So INS Vikrant size is around 44,000 tons and the planned one that is IEC 2 is around 65,000 tons. This is the crux of the article given here. In this context let us see about INS Vikrant. See recently the Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned INS Vikrant at Kochin Shipyard Limited. So this is the country's first indigenous aircraft carrier. Now the Navy is planning to order the second one that is IEC 2. See commissioning of INS Vikrant is a huge step. I say this because India has now entered into a select band of nations that have the capability to indigenously design and build an aircraft carrier. In this context we'll learn more about INS Vikrant. First you should know what is the aircraft carrier. See aircraft carrier is a large warship that has a deck. So from this deck aircrafts can take off and land. INS Vikrant is one such aircraft. It is designed by the Indian Navy's in-house warship design bureau and it was built by the Kochin Shipyard Limited. We all know that Kochin Shipyard Limited is a public sector shipyard under the ministry of ports shipping and waterways. Then Vikrant is built by the latest automation features and it is the largest ship ever built in the maritime history of India. Then if we talk about the specifications of Vikrant it is around 262.5 meter in length and 61.6 meter in width. It displaces approximately 43,000 tons when fully loaded. It has a maximum designed speed of 28 knots with the endurance of 7,500 nautical miles. Apart from this the ship has around 2,200 compartments designed for a crew of 1,600. This accommodates cabins for women officers and sailors too. Also the carrier is designed with a high degree of automation for missionary operations, ship navigation and survivability. Then the ship is capable of operating air wing consisting of 30 aircrafts. The aircraft comprises of MIG 29K fighter jets, come off 31, MH60 are multi-role helicopters, advanced light helicopters and light compact aircrafts. Finally INS Vikrant is equipped with a sky jump for launching aircraft. If you see from this image this is the sky jump and it also has a set of arrester wires. This is the arrester wire for the recovery of aircrafts onboard. This is possible using novel aircraft operation mode known as short takeoff but arrested recovery that is Stow Bar. See Stow Bar is a system used for the launch and recovery of aircraft from the takeoff and aircraft carrier. Previously catapult assisted takeoffs were used commonly. Just know that this Stow Bar is an improvement over the catapult assisted takeoffs. That's all. Now we will move on to the next article discussion. Now let us take this data point for our next discussion. As we all know Indian government is conducting tax rights in the BBC office all across India. The tax right has raised many questions especially since it was done barely a month after BBC released the documentary relating to the Gujarat riots. The article gives further examples of tax rights which were done on other media outlets that published articles against the government. This is the crux of the article given here. So through this discussion we will see some data points related to the conviction traits with respect to the tax rights in India. According to the article the operations of IT department can be divided into two types. One is the search and seizure actions and other is the survey actions. There are a lot of differences between the two. One major difference is that in a search operation any premises of the access that is residence shop office or any other place can be entered and searched. Whereas in a survey action only such places where business or profession is carried on like shops, offices, factories, goodhounds etc. can be entered. The residential premises cannot be entered in a survey action. Now look at the first chart. It shows the number of survey actions conducted by the IT department from the year 2013 till 2019 to 20. If you can see the number of survey actions got increased after the year 2015. Nearly more than double the amount of survey actions have been conducted by the IT department in the SID period. Now coming to the search and seizure operations, chart 2 shows the number of search and seizure operations conducted by the income tax department in 2 5 year periods. That is from 2011 to 2015 and 2016 to 2020. From the chart we can see that the total search and seizure actions has nearly increased 1.5 times in the SID period. But from this chart you can see that the rate of conviction is very low in this period that is in the period of 2016 to 2020. So it is in this period a lot of search and seizure operations were conducted. Now coming to chart 5, this chart shows the number of prosecution cases filed in the court by the income tax department and the number of cases that were compounded in the 3 years period. See here the term compounded refers to the case which has resulted in conviction. From the chart you can see that the number of cases of prosecution filed and the number of compounded cases is nearly same in the 1st segment. The ratio of compounded cases to the prosecution filed before the court decreases profoundly in the 2nd segment. So this chart here shows that from the financial year 2016 to financial year 2018, a good chunk of cases filed by the IT department has not resulted in convictions. Now look at this chart, it shows a similar increasing trend of cases filed under the PAMLA Act that is Prevention of Money Laundering Act. From just around 200 cases annually till the year 2017, the case count has now been increased constantly over the last 4 years. In the year 2021, the case count has reached 1200. According to the article there were only 23 convictions in the 5,422 cases filed until March 2022. With this we have come to the end of this discussion. Through the 5 charts which we discussed here, we can see that there is an increasing trend of IT rights in our country. But the conviction rate of these rights has been very low when compared with the previous year data. The article points out that IT rights are used to intimidate people who are critical of the government. This in turn is affecting the press freedom. This is all regarding this data point discussion. Now we will move on to the next article discussion. For a next discussion let us take this particular article. It says that Chandrayaan 3 lander has successfully completed the crucial EMI-EMC test. EMI-EMC is expanded as Electromagnetic Interference and Electromagnetic Compatibility Test. According to ISROM, the EMI-EMC test is conducted to ensure the functionality of satellites in the space environment. It is also conducted for testing the compatibility with the electromagnetic levels in the space environment. This is the crux of the article given here. So using this opportunity let us learn about the moon missions of ISROM. We all know India already has launched two moon missions. First is Chandrayaan 1 and second is the Chandrayaan 2. Also ISROM is now preparing for its third moon mission which is Chandrayaan 3. The testing for this third mission only we saw in the news today. So today we will try and understand about the three moon missions. See Chandrayaan 1 was India's first mission to moon. It was launched by the polar satellite launch vehicle C-11 on October 22, 2008 from Sriharikota. Chandrayaan 2 is a follow on mission to the Chandrayaan 1. It was launched by GSLV Mk3 M1 launch vehicle on July 22, 2019. However in this mission the land of Vikram missed the primary landing site and it was lost. Then Chandrayaan 3 is a follow on mission to Chandrayaan 2. Now ISROM plans to launch Chandrayaan 3 by GSLV Mk3 by June 2023. When it comes to the components of these missions, Chandrayaan 1 carried a range of scientific equipments both Indian and international to the lunar orbit. Chandrayaan 1 orbited the moon at a distance of 100 km from its surface. It was on a mission to map the chemical, mineralogical and photogeologic characteristics of the moon. The Chandrayaan 2 had 3 modules namely, Arbiter, Lander which is Vikram and Rover which is Pragyan. The Arbiter will circle the moon and provide information about its surface. The Lander will soft land on the lunar surface and unload the Rover, which then studies and measures the surface. Now Chandrayaan 3 will have only the Lander and Rover. The mission is to demonstrate the end to end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. So when it comes to payloads, Chandrayaan 1 carried 5 ISRO payloads and 6 payloads from other space agencies including NASA, ESA and Bulgarian Aerospace Agency. Chandrayaan 2 carried 13 payloads including 3 from Europe, 2 from USA and 1 from Bulgaria. Now look at this image for the payload information of Chandrayaan 3. Finally, let us see about the success of these missions. See, Chandrayaan 1 involved the surveying of lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography. Chandrayaan 1 was in operation for 312 days. The mini-synthetic aperture radar of Chandrayaan 1 found water-ice deposits in the craters on the far side of the moon. This was considered a significant finding. Then coming to Chandrayaan 2 on September 7, Vikram began its 15-minute lunar descent. However, with moments to go for the landing and just few meters above the lunar surface, Vikram suddenly went silent and it lost all contacts with the ISRO's ground station. But Chandrayaan 2 Arbiter is now revolving safely around the moon and it is carrying out experiments. Now Chandrayaan 3 is yet to be launched and we will get the updates on it soon. So in this particular discussion, we saw about the different lunar missions of ISRO. Now we will move on to the next news article discussion. Now take a look at this editorial article. As the title itself hints, this article talks about the disqualification of a politician. Now, why is this suddenly in news? See, recently the sitting MP of Lakshadeep, Mr. Mohammed Faisal, was convicted by the Kavirathi Sessions Court for attempt to murder and the court sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment. This happened on January 11. So on January 13, the Lokshaba announced that he is disqualified as an MP with effect from the date of conviction. On January 18, the Election Commission of India fixed February 27 as the date for by-election to that constituency. But Mr. Faisal appealed to the Kerala High Court for a stay on his conviction and sentence. The High Court granted the stay on January 25. Now the issue here is whether disqualification for conviction is final or whether it can be revoked later. See, this question can arise whenever a legislator is disqualified, right? So in this particular news discussion, let us understand the disqualification provisions in the RPA Act and the courts stand in different cases. Before that, the syllabus relevant to this discussion is highlighted here. You can go through it. See, as we all know, disqualification means the act of stopping someone from taking part in a competition or activity. The Indian law actually provides three types of disqualification. One is given in the article 102 of the constitution. So this article specifies that a person shall be disqualified for contesting elections and being a member of parliament under certain conditions. These include holding an office of profit, being of unsound mind or insolvent or not being a citizen of India. It also authorizes the parliament to make laws determining the condition of disqualification. There are similar provisions for the member of state legislatures as well. The other disqualification was introduced by parliament through the 52nd amendment by inserting 10th schedule in the constitution. So this is commonly called as the anti-defection law and it came into effect from March 1, 1985. This particular law punishes the individual members of parliament or MLA for leaving one party for another. By doing so, the act aims to keep the government stable by preventing the legislators from switching sides. Third provision is given in the representation of people act 1951. Section 8 of this particular act contains provisions aimed at decriminalizing electoral politics. This section categorizes criminal cases into two. Both attract disqualification upon conviction. But there is a slight difference that you have to make note of here. First category consists of offenses that attract disqualification for a period of 6 years upon conviction. So if a member is convicted under offenses listed in the first category, then he or she will attract disqualification for a period of 6 years. Here note that if the punishment is fine, this 6 year period will run from the date of conviction. But if there is a prison sentence, the disqualification will begin on the date of conviction and this will continue up to the completion of 6 years after the date of release from jail. Offences under this category is given here for your reference, you can go through it. Except these, all other criminal provisions form a separate category. So under this category, mere conviction will not lead to disqualification. To infer disqualification, a sentence of at least 2 years in prison is needed. See, previously there was an exception for sitting members. They have been provided a period of 3 months from the date of conviction to appeal. And the disqualification will not be applicable until the appeal is decided. In other words, the mere filing of an appeal against conviction will act as a stay against disqualification. So if you are an MP and you are convicted and you have applied for an appeal against your conviction, you will not be disqualified until your case is decided. This violates the right to equality under Article 14, right? And this is why this provision was challenged in the case K. Prabhaharan versus P. Jayarajan. But a constitution bench of Supreme Court decided that the consequences of disqualifying a contestant and a sitting member were different. Because if a sitting member is disqualified, the strength of the party in the legislature would change, right? And if the government had a thin majority, then this change could have an adverse impact. Secondly, if the person is disqualified for conviction and later proved to be innocent, then the results of the by-election should have to be cancelled, right? So the court said that it is reasonable to treat the two categories differently. But later in the 2013, in Lily Thomas versus Union of India case, a two-judge bench of Supreme Court again considered whether this exception is constitutionally valid or not. The bench said that Article 102 empowers Parliament to make laws regarding the disqualification of a person. This means that the conditions for disqualification made by the Parliament will apply equally to the candidates and sitting members. So notice the difference here. In the first case, the court agreed that disqualifying a contestant and a sitting member is different because of the consequences associated with it. But in the Lily Thomas case, the court held that the disqualifications apply equally to the candidates and sitting members. And hence the Supreme Court struck down this clause as unconstitutional. The judgment further cited Article 101. Article 101 deals with the vacation of seats. The judgment said if a member of Parliament was disqualified under Article 102, then his seat will become vacant immediately thereupon. Therefore, the disqualification is automatic and has immediate effect if the conditions of the article 102 were met. Now, the important point to note here is the judgment stated that a disqualified person may obtain a stay on his conviction. And if he is granted the stay, the disqualification would be removed from the date of the stay order. Since both these judgments contradict with each other, we have to wait and watch what will happen. Now, we will move on to the next article discussion. Take a look at this text and context page article. It talks about the standard model of particle physics. Since there might be a question and prelims regarding this, in this discussion, let us try and understand some aspects of the standard model of particle physics. Now, look at this image. As you can see in the image, the standard model is the theory that explains how the basic building blocks of matter interact with each other and how they are governed by the three fundamental forces of nature. I hope you all know about the four fundamental forces of nature, right? They include the strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, electromagnetic force and gravitational force. This particular model could not explain gravity alone. Except that the model describes the properties of all subatomic particles, classifies them into different groups and it also determines how they are affected by the three of the four fundamental forces of nature. See, as we all know, any matter is made up of molecules and these molecules are made up of atoms that are bound together. But the atom is not the smallest unit of matter. See, each atom has a tiny dense nucleus. This nucleus is also surrounded by even tinier electrons. So, electron is the first standard model particle that was ever discovered. Electrons are bound to nucleus by electromagnetic force. Now, talking about nucleus, it contains protons and neutrons. These protons and neutrons are actually made of quarks. So, they are not fundamental particles. Since quarks are indivisible, they come under fundamental particles. Here, the protons and neutrons are made up of quarks only. A proton consists of two up quarks and a down quark. And a neutron consists of two down quarks and an up quark. So, these are the largest particles formed by quarks, as I mentioned earlier. So, basically, the elementary particles occur in two basic types called quarks and leptons. Each of these group consists of six particles which are related in pair or generations. That means there is a group of six quarks and six leptons. The six quarks are paired in three generations as the up quark and down quark, which form the first generation followed by charm quark and strange quark. Then, the top quark and bottom or the beauty quark. Similarly, the leptons are arranged in three generations. They are the electrons and the electron neutrino, the muon and the muon neutrino. And finally, the tau and the tau neutrino. Here, the electron muon and tau all have an electric charge and a sizeable mass. But the neutrinos are electrically neutral and have very little mass. Here, there is a fact for you to remember. See, the protons and neutrons come under a group called hadrons. Actually, the first known hadrons were protons and neutrons only. These hadrons are strongly interacting particles. This strong interaction is a property that distinguishes hadrons from leptons because leptons do not participate in strong interactions. In other words, leptons are weakly interacting particles. So now, I hope you got an idea about the subatomic particles, which are nothing but the building blocks of metals. So now, if the scientists want to know about the origin of the universe or what the universe is made of, they need to study these particles. Now, coming to the article, as presently expressed, the standard model has 61 elementary particles. The standard model comprises 24 fundamental fermions. It contains 12 particles and their related antiparticles. During 2011, the standard model predicted the existence of Higgs boson. So, although the standard model accurately describes the phenomena within its domain, it is still incomplete and it does not explain many important features of the known universe. So, with this, we have come to the end of the discussion. Now, we will move on to the next part of the news analysis, which is Prillum's question. Four questions will be discussed by me and one will be the quiz question for the team. Question number one, consider the following statements regarding sickle cell anemia. Statement number one, if a child inherits one faulty gene from the parent, then the child will get the sickle cell disease. Statement number two, the sickle-shaped cells cannot deliver oxygen properly to the body and causes attacks of sudden severe pain called pain crisis. Here, statement number one is incorrect. To get the sickle cell disease, the child should have two faulty hemoglobin genes called hemoglobin S. So, the child gets one from each parent. Look at this image. If they have one faulty gene, then it means they have the sickle cell trite. A person has sickle cell trite when the hemoglobin S gene is inherited from only one parent and a normal hemoglobin gene is inherited from the other. People who have sickle cell trite are generally healthy. So, only if they get two faulty genes, they will get the disease. Here, statement number two is correct. The shortage of oxygen causes attacks of sudden severe pain called pain crisis. These pain crisis can occur without warning and a person who has them often needs to go to hospital for effective treatment. Since the question is asking for incorrect statement, the correct answer here is option A, one only. Question number two, which among the following countries have soft landed on the moon surface? One, China, two United States of America, three Soviet Union and four, European Space Agency. See, many countries have sent missions to moon, but so far only three countries have soft landed on the moon surface. It includes China, Soviet Union and US. If India's Vikram Landau did not crash, India would have also joined this list as a fourth country. So, the answer for this question is option A, one, two and three only. Question number three, God particle is option A, neutrino, B, Higgs boson, C, meson and D, positron. C, Higgs boson is the fundamental particle associated with the Higgs field. This is the field that gives mass to other fundamental particles such as electrons and quarks. The correct answer here is option B, Higgs boson. Question number four, consider the following statements. Statement number one, according to the Constitution of India, a person who is eligible to vote can be made a minister in the state for six months, even if he or she is not a member of legislature of the state. Statement number two, according to the representation of people at 1951, a person convicted of a criminal offense and sentenced to imprisonment for five years is permanently disqualified from contesting an election, even after his release from prison. Which of the statements given above is RR correct? See, here statement number one is incorrect. A person becomes eligible to vote when he attends the age of 18, right? But to become a minister, the person first should become a member of parliament or state legislative assembly. To become a member of parliament or state legislature assembly, an individual must be at least 25 years of age. See, there is an exception to this case. A non-member of the parliament or legislative assembly of a state can become a minister for a period of six months. But after these six months, he or she need to become a member of the house to continue as a minister. The statement here says that any individual who has the right to vote can become a minister. So this statement is incorrect because only persons about 25 years can become a minister. Statement number one is incorrect. Then moving on to statement number two, this statement is also incorrect. A person convicted for more than two years is disqualified to contest in the election for a period of six years after the end of his or her term. This is as per section eight of representation of people at 1951. So here the statement number two is also incorrect. The correct answer for this question is option D, neither one nor two. Now this is the quiz question for the day. You can answer this from the discussion that we had today. 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